If he’s not interested in patenting the box and enforcing the patent worldwide, then Chinese manufacturers are free to make the box and sell it (or the Chinese

If he’s not interested in patenting the box and enforcing the patent worldwide, then Chinese manufacturers are free to make the box and sell it (or the Chinese government can give the boxes away as part of its own foreign-aid programs), whether Hoff thinks that’s a good idea or not. Also, if it’s possible to design a variant of the box that farmers or unemployed workers can build for themselves out of locally available materials, then the locally built product may be competitive with the imported version.